Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1892 — MoKinley’s Account Continued. [ARTICLE]

MoKinley’s Account Continued.

Our expert accountant, who is charged with crediting thp McKinley bill with all of the wage increases and defunct trusts reported each week, and of debiting It with all of the wage reductions and new trusts reported, as uoual has great trouble this week in balancing his accounts. This “trust-killing," wage-advancing tariff may be getting in its work straight enough, but for some reason—perhaps the modesty of the Republican press—the credit side of the account is not much mentioned, except In a theoretical and general way. From the long list of the debit ■ side we extract the follow lng:

April 24—To the report that nearly all of the big Iron companies in the South are forming a combination with a capital of about $50,000,000 and that the companies that are not joining the combine will be tributary to It ana sell their produots through the new organization. April 25—To a locomotive tire trust formed by the five manufacturers In this country—the Nashua Iron Company; the Standard and Steel Company of Lewiston, Pennsylvania; the Latrobe Steel Company of Latrobe, Pennsylvania; the Midvale Steel Company of Philadelphia; and the Chicago Tire and Steel Spring Works of Chicago. Prices have been advanced and stockholders are jubilant over the prospects. April 25—To the report that 600 men have been thrown out of work in thp Lehigh Valley coal region by the combine of the Reading with several othgr railroads. The price of coal to western consumers has been advanced, and the production of coal has been diminished so that the colliers are working only half time, and the miners for half-pay. Wages in railroad shops, and of train men have also been reduced. April 26—To report that the Sligo Rolling-Mills of Pittsburg is dosed down and 300 men are thrown out of work. April .27—To the report In a journal of the Knights of Labor that the rubber industry Is to be cornered. A company with a capital of $50,000,000 has been chartered In New Jersey, which is really a combine of all the existing ooncerns. They propose to manufacture, not only rubber goods, but litharge, whiting, buckles, and everything used- in the manufacture of rubber goods. April 27—To the report that the officers of the Reading Railroad propose to establish a uniform rate of wages of the three railroads now In this combine. The men understapd what such a “readjustment” means, and are preparing for a strike. April 30—To a report that the manufacturers of gas fixtures haVe formed a trust. While this Is denied by some of those said to be in it, yet it l§ certain

that prioes of gas fixtures have been materially advanoed of late. April 80—To report that the great safe manufacturing houses of Herring, Hall and Marvin have formed a trust, with a capital of $3,800,000, and that the combined earnings of the three In 1891 were $816,790.

A burden of annual taxation of $460,000,000 on a population of 65,000,000 is a little over $7 per capita, or $35.37 on every family; but the ultimate burden of a system of indirect taxation on imported commodities on the final eonsumer of such commodities is oertainly considerably greater. Beoent investigations in this matter, instituted in the English oolony of New Zealand, where the revenue of the state, received mainly from customs taxes on imports collected from a sparse population, afford unusual facilities for Investigation, lndioate that tho burden of such taxation is inoreased to the final consumers of the taxod artiole to the extent of at least 33 per cent, In the United States the increment is probably tauoh greater. The average burden of Federal taxation for tho next fiscal year will, therefore, oertainly be at leaßt S4O on overy family, and promises In the immediate future to be greater rather than less. To the man with au inoomo of S2O per day, or $6,000 per annum, this is not much, but the farmer who is raising and selling oorn for 15 oents a bushel, and to the operatives in the great leading meohanlcal industries of the country, whose annual inoomes average less than S4OO, It means privation.—From David A. Wells' “Taxes Are Extra Pays’ Work.” I want to say to you that every time you take protection off frpm any f&VQred

industry you place the man interested in that industry in tho ranks of those who are fighting against protection. I want to say to you that this is the way protection was built up. As one man got protection on his article, the man that had to oonsume his artiole saw that tho only way to balanoo himsolf and to even himself up with the other fellow was to have protection put on the product of his labor; and thus we went to logrolling, and put a tariff on different things, until we got them all into the ring.—Jerry Simpson.